


Silence after the storm

by PerriewinkleNerdie



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 10:34:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20758955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerriewinkleNerdie/pseuds/PerriewinkleNerdie
Summary: Tragic events cause emotions to get the best of them





	Silence after the storm

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello, hello!   
My writer’s block is gone, bless her soul, may she never come back. I am a sucker for stories like this, so I couldn’t resist writing one myself.  
Enjoy! <3

The say was slow. Peaceful. Everything around him was quiet, which was unusual, given the fact, that he was at the hospital.

Ethan was walking alongside Harper. They were consulting on the patient, one of those difficult cases. The waiting room was quite empty, only a few patients and their families in there.

One of their patients, Max, was coming down the stairs, an empty look in his eyes.

Harper smiled at him. he’s been with them for a few months now.

“Hi, Max! How are you feeling today? Do- “

Her words were cut off by a gunshot. Max had a gun. And he just shot one of the patients in the waiting room.

Panic took over. People were screaming, running for cover.

All the while, Harper had a gun aimed at her.

Ethan moved in front of her, covering her with his body. That made the patient enclose his fingers around the gun tighter.

They were looking at one another, testing to see who would break first.

Then, a soft, delicate voice cut through the silence.

“Max?”

Ethan’s head snapped to the side and his eyes widened with horror.

“Dr. Herondale…” the patient whispered weakly.

“What’s wrong, Max?” she took a step towards him and he turned, pointing a gun at her chest.

“Claire…’ Ethan was panicking now.

_Not her. Please, not her._

She raised her hand tentatively, stopping him from saying another word.

“I want to talk to you, Max. You’re important to me. I care about you.”

“No, you don’t. Nobody does. I’m alone. I have no one.”

“That’s not true, Max. You have me. I’m your friend. Now, do you think you can lower the gun so we can talk?”

His fingers moved uncertainly over the trigger, his hand shaking. He was breathing heavily, his eyes wide with fear, running over her face.

Claire took another step towards him. And another. And another, until she was standing in front of him. The gun was pressed against the skin of her chest, digging into it with force.

“Max, I know you’re scared. I know you don’t want to hurt me. I just want to talk. Please, can you lower the gun?”

Tears pooled in his eyes as he was struggling to make a decision. Claire could see it in his eyes, the battle he was having with himself. She could also feel two pairs of eyes trained on her with anticipation of what would come next.

“Max? Can I ask Dr. Emery to help that patient? Would that be okay? He’s in a lot of pain and needs help.” She smiled softly at him. He nodded after a minute of silence.

Claire waved her hand at Harper, slowly and delicately; she didn’t want to startle Max.

“Why are you doing this, Dr. Herondale? I am no one. Why do you care so much?” he was crying now, his posture trembling.

“Because I do care about you. You are important. You are needed. I won’t let you think any differently. Can I hug you? I always feel better after a hug.”

Another nod from him, and she stepped forward, her hand moving his hand with a gun away from her carefully, pointing it on the ground. Her other arm wrapped tightly him.

The gun fell to the ground with a loud clank and she did her best not to move. Two doctors and security came through the door quietly, taking him from her, leading him away to give him the help he needs.

Claire turned towards Harper and kneeled by her, helping her with the shot patient. Once that was done too, they both stood up.

“That was some piece of work, Herondale. I’m impr- “

“What the _hell_ was that, Rookie?” Ethan’s voice boomed through the room.

He strode over to them, his posture stiff.

“Dr. Ramsey- “

“What were you thinking?! One wrong move and you’d be dead!”

“He was pointing his gun at you! I couldn’t let you get hurt!”

“Oh, so you decided to let him shoot you?”

“He wasn’t going to shoot me!”

“He might as well have! Do you have a death wish, Rookie?”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing! What is this about?”

“He was pointing the gun at _me._ _I _would have gotten hurt, not _you._ And, yet, here you are, putting yourself in the line of danger, and for what? He had a gun by your chest, one move from his fingers and you’d be _dead. Dead, Rookie._”

They were staring intensely at one another, both fuming, furious.

Meanwhile, other doctors came into the room, watching the whole scene. So was Harper, standing by the couple, staring at them with an amused look on her face.

Ethan was looking at the woman in front of him. She was so important to him, they were dating for the past five months and each day brought him closer to the conclusion that he loved her. And he wanted to tell her, so badly, but there was never a good occasion to do so.

And if the situation from that day had gone differently, he’d never get the chance to tell her.

He groaned in frustration, threw his hands up in the air and left, not looking back. Claire turned and left too, leaving other doctors confused.

Harper looked around, spotting Zaid and Ines by the wall. She approached them, not sure what had happened.

“Are they really fighting about who’s saving who?” she was amused to say the least.

There were a few people in the hospital that knew about the relationship between those two, and Harper, Zaid and Ines were one of those people.

“It would appear so.” Ines laughed, looking at the place where the two were standing, just seconds ago.

“So… how long do you give them before they make up?” Zaid clasped his hands together, rubbing them.

“Zaid! You can’t do that!”

“Sure I can. That’s the fun of it all. So, how long? I say, a solid week. He was _furious_.”

“No. I don’t think he was furious. You didn’t see his eyes. He was _petrified. _Frozen by fear of something happening to her. I give them two days _max_, for that exact reason.” Harper concluded, before leaving the two other doctors, going to check on other patients.

\-------------

Claire was laying on her bed. The feelings of panic and fear, replaced later on by anger and fury, were gone. Now, she was just tired.

The adrenaline she was running on left her body, and she crashed. The whole situation with Ethan wasn’t helping either. She couldn’t understand what happened.

Her mind was racing, making her even more tired. After a few hours of trying to do something productive, only to fail each time, she decided to try and catch some sleep.

Tossing and turning. Turning and tossing. No matter what she did, what she thought about, which way she turned, in which position she was, she just couldn’t fall asleep. Her mind refused to turn off.

Now she was laying with her back turned towards the door, looking out the window. The night sky was slowly filling itself up with stars, bright spots on the dark field of navy.

She heard the door opening slowly, the creaking sound breaking the silence. She didn’t turn to see who it was, she was too tired and entirely not interested in finding out who came to talk to her.

“Claire?” his voice shot straight to her heart and mind, but she didn’t move.

She felt the bed dip under the additional weight, as Ethan sat down at the edge of the mattress.

“Sienna let me in. I came to apologize.” He sounded so sincere, so truthful and so _broken_.

Her shoulders moved when she took a deep breath, but no other movement was visible. She was listening.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. You did the right thing, helping those patients, and I shouldn’t have exploded the way I did. It’s just that… I had it under control, he had me at gunpoint and I knew what to do. I was sure no one else would be hurt. And then _you_ showed up, inserted yourself into the equation, and the result changed. _Now, _I had something to lose.”

He took a deep, shaky breath, steadying himself, before he spoke up again.

“You pointed his attention to you and my world has stopped. You put yourself in the line of danger, you put yourself in the line of a gun. I’ve never been so terrified of something in my entire life. I could have lost you today. I have so much that I’d like to say, so many things I’d like to do with you, so many places I’d like to take you to. And today, when I saw you with a gun against your chest, I realized that I might not get a chance to do all those things. _I love you, Claire._ I wanted to say that for so long, that I forgot who I was before that. Before you became a part of me. Before you became a necessity to my existence. I took you for granted. I thought you’d always be here with me. And now, that I know what it’s like to almost lose you, I’m never going to make that mistake again.”

Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she listened to him, to his heart being poured out. She turned around to face him.

His cheeks were stained with tears of his own, pain and fear and _love_ in his eyes, shining brighter than all the stars combined.

She sat up, touching the tips of his fingers with hers.

“I want us to go public. I want to take you places. I want us to be happy, no matter where we are. I want people to know how much I love you. Because I do, Claire. With everything I am. I love you. I love you. I love you. I promise to never let you forget that. I love you.”

Claire moved her hands to wipe his tears, stroking his cheeks softly. His hands stayed by his side, not sure if he could do anything.

“Ethan, can you touch me? Please?” she smiled softly and next thing she knew, she was being hoisted into the air.

He cradled her in his arms, hugging her closely. Her head was under his chin, her ear by his chest, listening to his beating heart, loud and steady.

“We’ll be okay, Claire. Right? Tell me. I need to hear you say that.” He pleaded, his grip on her tight and secure.

She nuzzled her nose against his chest before whispering softly.

“_I love you too. _Of course we’ll be alright.”

They reclined on the bed, falling asleep in each other’s arms.

\--------

The next day, they walked into the hospital together. His arm was around her waist, keeping her close by his side. When it was time for them to separate, he pulled her into a searing kiss, leaving nothing to discussion. He was in love. He had her. She was his and he was hers.

With a tight hug and a final squeeze of hands, they went their separate ways, getting ready for a long shift ahead of them.

Meanwhile, by the far wall, Harper, Ines and Zaid were looking at them, observing the situation. Harper was smiling triumphally as the other two groaned, reaching into their pockets to retrieve their wallets, pulling out ten dollars each and giving them to her. And there was only one word on her mind.

_Finally._


End file.
